The DOB yesterday served a full Stop Work Order at 117 Second Ave. ... right across Seventh Street from the site of the deadly gas explosion on March 26.
The building is owned by Maria Hrynenko, who is also the landlord at 121 Second Ave., the site of the blast.
According to DOB records:
WORK WITHOUT A PERMIT - TESTING & TAKING APART GAS LINES
Here's more detail from documents on file with the DOB:
FULL STOP WORK ORDER - WORK WITHOUT A PERMIT; INSPECTION TIME 11:07AM
AT TIME OF INSPECTION I OBSERVED GAS PIPING IN THE RESTAURANT IN GROUND FLOOR AND CELLAR DISCONNECTED, CAPED AND BEING PRESSURE TESTED BY THE PLUMBERS NO PERMITS WITH DOB
As a result, San Marzano, the restaurant here, had to close yesterday after reopening on April 10...
San Marzano's owners left a note for patrons saying they will be closed until further notice…
[Image via @anoop]
San Marzano was closed from March 26 through April 9. No. 117 was under a full vacate order from the DOB.
There should be two laws in place for situations like this:
ReplyDelete1) When landlords dick with gas lines, forcing a turn-off and shut down of storefronts in the building, rent payments should be automatically waived.
2) Landlords who put their commercial tenants in a position of having to shut down while repairs are effected must pay those tenants all the monies they would have ordinarily collected during the time they are unable to open for business.
From the fact that it's the same owner to the reason for the Stop Work Order, it's almost too mind-boggling to believe.
ReplyDeleteWhy does it matter who the landlord is when it's the restaurant tampering with the gas lines?
ReplyDeleteOne gas line explodes and suddenly no one can do any work on any gas lines!
ReplyDeleteMaybe ALL the gas lines in that area are suspect, and Con Ed is covering up something?
So who hired the plumbers who were doing the illegal work? Was it the restaurant or the landlord?
ReplyDeleteI find it incredibly hard to believe that if an honest, thorough inspection were to be performed at every building in the east village, that the inspectors wouldn't find massive problems and hazards at every single building. The city is just fostering an environment that allows these things to happen either unnoticed or without concern and consequence. I feel like unfortunately, the fire on 2nd avenue was just a symptom or product of the overall problem that nobody seems to be very serious about addressing or remedying.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for the people who work at San Marzano. I ate there during the Second Avenue Business Crawl and loved the food and planned to hit the place again this weekend.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Elle and wish the city would begin an emergency inspection program, making inspections at every building in this neighborhood. With the rush to cash in and make money here in the last few years, everyone is cutting corners.
ReplyDeleteHere's an example of the depth of corruption at the DOB, and why nothing will change until major reforms are put in place. A couple of years ago, I reported a major alteration being made to my 110-year-old building without a permit. The building is owned by one of the neighborhood's more infamous landlords. Not only was the "emergency" not inspected for several weeks after I reported it (at which point, of course, work was done and there was nothing to see), but months later the report was in fact altered to make it a much less serious violation. It was downgraded from damaging the building's foundation to altering a cosmetic feature at the top of an archway. Only problem was, the archway did not exist on the date of the complaint; they were jackhammering the foundation to create the archway.
ReplyDeleteNice, right? So what good will more inspections do?
Better to inspect the amount in the inspector's wallet before and after he visits the site.
@4:55pm: I hear you! The delays in response time make a mockery of the whole concept.
ReplyDeleteSo many things I have called into DOB (or 311, more to the point) and am told they'll get someone there in 2 weeks, or within a month. By which time the damage is done and the guilty parties are long gone from the scene. I have sometimes said "well, if this goes badly then I guess it'll be on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper" at which point the 311 operator says "oh, then you should call 911!" - but never, not even once, has a 311 operator indicated that DOB would get there any quicker than their "standard" (sloth-like) response times.
Which is why landlords get away with so much shit in NYC buildings.